12 Absolute Must Have Tools For Your Online Business

That’s one of the questions that I get asked a lot in terms of different tools that I’m using to run an online business.

So instead of answering that question over and over again, I decided to put together this post to share pretty much all the tools that I use almost on a daily basis.

Some of these tools are paid, and some are free.

In total there are 12 must have tools that I highly suggest you use. You can either use the ones I share, or you can find some alternatives which I also mention in the post and video.

1.Capture Page Creator

If you are in the online marketing – internet marketing space, you gotta generate your own leads, you can’t just rely on your warm market (your friends and family), in most cases they are not the most supportive ones. And in order for you to generate leads, you need to have capture pages which require people to enter their name and email (and sometimes phone number), so that you can follow up with them afterwards.

There are multiple tools that will allow you to do that. Some of the very popular ones are Lead Pages, ClickFunnels, Optimize Press. I’m personally using Optimize Press and Funnelizer, which you can learn more about here. Make sure you choose the software that is integrated with your autoresponder (which is tool #2).

12 Must Have Tools

A lot of the times people say – “I can’t afford an autoresponder”. Well, then why are you in this business anyways? Online business just like any other business requires some investments, and autoresponder is a 100{f3c65145988e2e59c83e583cebd868b487b41a6223d103cb7159bbb31ea456e1} MUST HAVE tool. If you don’t have it, why are you even bothering trying to do something on the Internet?

If you don’t follow up with your leads, you’re not only leaving money on the table, but you’re NOT making any money at all. You can’t expect to make sales straight away by sending people to a capture page. It doesn’t work like this.

There are a lot of different autoresponders out there – Get Response, MailChimp, Constact Contact, Infusion Soft, but I personally prefer AWeber, just because it’s super simple and it’s integrated with pretty much every single platform out there where you can use autoresponder. You can start your free 30 day trial here.

3.Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)

This is one of the tools which will allow you to manage all of your leads and prospects in once place, instead of writing the names down on paper. You can add kinds of information about your prospects. You can import/export your leads there. You can manage all of your follow up calls or emails in the CRM.

There are a lot of different CRMs out there, they cost around $100 or so per month. Click here to learn more about the CRM that I’m using to manage all of my leads.

4.Link Tracker

When you have multiple sources of traffic, you need to know what works and what doesn’t. That’s why you should be tracking all of your links. Because you don’t wanna spend your time on activities that don’t bring you results, right?

That’s the tool that you wanna have in place especially if you’re doing a lot of paid advertising, like Solo Ads, or Banner Ads. One of the best ones that I know is ClickMagick.

5.Video Creation/Editing Software

If you’re not already doing videos, why not? From what I found, videos is one of the BEST ways to connect with your audience and attract targeted leads and customers. But you need to have a software on your computer to either do screen recording or video recording. Since I’m on Mac, there’s a software already installed, which is called QuickTime Player, and the editing software is iMovie.But if you’re using PC, then there’s Windows Movie Maker and Camtasia.

6.Hosting

If you have a blog or any other websites that you host on the Internet, you need to have hosting. There are a lot of options to choose from. Most of them are fairly cheap, there are some advanced hostings for those of you who get a lot of traffic to your site. The one I’m using is Bluehost. The reason why I like this particular one is they have great support (that’s from my own experience). Every time I sent them a message, they are very friendly and extremely helpful.

7.Domains

You are in this business to brand YOU, and you gotta own domains with your name. I have several domains right now that I use. And it also looks a lot more professional when you share it with people instead of an ugly affiliate link. The service that I’m using for domains is GoDaddy. Never had any problems with them.

Recently I was transferring my domain from Bluehost to GoDaddy, and they have helped me with every step. The support is great, so I highly recommend them for domains (but not for hosting).

And I store some domains in Bluehost, because you can have one domain for free with your hosting there, and if you wanna add more domains, then they’re around 5 bucks or so.

8.Application Software

That’s the tool that I get asked a lot about, because I mentioned the application process that I do quite a lot. And the tools that I’m using is called Wufoo. I like the way you can create forms in it – super simple to do. They are mobile responsive, and you can literally create forms in a few minutes.

Another great thing about them is that you can embed the forms on your websites too, so that you don’t have to take people away from your site (you can take a look at one of the forms I have here).

9.Scheduling Software

That’s another tool that I get asked a lot about – that’s a scheduling tool that I use with my leads and prospects to get with them on the phone or Skype. That’s the page they typically see after they fill out an application form in Wufoo. And it’s called YouCanBook.Me.

It’s a free tool. I think they do have a paid version, but I’ve been using it for several months now, and the features that the free version has are pretty much enough.

10.Image Editing

Even though I’m a huge Photoshop fan, I’m not using it now as much as I use Canva. Almost all of the images that you see on my blog are created with this little tool. It’s free to use, they have a paid upgrade that they launched a couple months back. And some of the premium images are $1 per image. They have a lot of great layouts for images, so you can use your creativity!

11.Webinar Platform

-If you are more of an advanced marketer and you are ready to create your own webinars, there are a LOT of different programs that you can use. I’ve done my research and I found a ton of them. Since I’m not doing a lot of webinars right now, I purchased Webinar Hero from JVZoo. But if you are planning on becoming a master at Webinars, you can sign up either for Webinars On Air, or WebinarJam, or GoToWebinar. Either one of them are great!

12.Timer

If you are a productivity geek like me, then you MUST have a timer. You can either set one up on your phone, but I prefer using this little tool called Toggl, where I basically set the time that I’m gonna be working (if it’s a blog post it can be an hour or so), and when I go back to my blog post, the tab of Toggl is open and I see the time ticking, so it moves me to work more efficient.

You’re gonna double your productivity once you start putting a timer on your activities. This will keep you more accountably and you will absolutely get more done throughout the day!

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I would greatly appreciate if you commented and shared

Great post Jelena! We were curious if you had heard anything about Aweber not being very network marketer friendly compared to Get Response? Thank you for sharing these 12 must have tools. Extremely helpful! 🙂

Yeah, I heard Aweber gets tough on us and sometimes they close accounts, they weren’t even okay with me being an affiliate for them in the beginning because of some programs that I’m a part of. Then I got in contact with them in 5 months or so, and they approved.